The present invention relates to a spinal restraint device and is particularly concerned with such a device especially constructed and arranged for use with emergency patients. Such an occasion might arise in the case of an automobile accident, an injury to a player in an athletic event, a construction site accident, or any other type of an accident in which the injured person may have received a serious injury to his back or neck area.
The handling of an injured person requires special care in removing and carrying the injured person to a location equipped to administer medical treatment, such as hospitals or emergency centers.
Moving the injured person requires more than ordinary care in as much as a person is frequently injured in such a way that movement of the body causes further injury. Often the victim is trapped in a wreck in a position so that it is difficult to gain access to him. Haste in removing and transporting the person to adequate medical center facilities also tends to result in injury beyond that suffered in the actual accident. Thus, if the patient has had an injury to the spine, it is of the utmost importance to immobilize the body during the handling of the patient.
This need is recognized, and to some extent all litters and stretchers take account of the necessity for maintaining the patient in an immobile as well as comfortable a position as possible. Some devices have even been designed for the specific purpose of avoiding further bone or spine injury. However, the devices known to the art are far from satisfactory in a number of respects. Some are so complicated as to demand more time in use than is practical to employ. Other devices are unduly bulky. In addition, little attention has been given to the need for accommodating an injured person seated in the bucket seat of an automobile. The rigid back brace board utilized in most spinal restraint devices is next to impossible to slide down behind the back of an injured person sitting in a bucket seat. Spinal restraint devices utilizing this rigid back board construction are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,469,268 and 4,034,748.
In most of the present day spinal restraint devices, little or no provision has been made for hoisting the patient up out of a fairly inaccessible location while strapped in the spinal restraint device. Many of these present day spinal restraint devices do not have leg loop straps which results in the patient tending to slip downwardly in the device if it is lifted in some manner by gripping the top of the device. In those few spinal restraint devices that do have leg loops, the body of the patient still has a tendency to sag downwardly when the device is hoisted vertically.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel spinal restraint device that can easily be slipped beneath the back of an injured victim in an automobile accident that is sitting in a bucket seat.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel spinal restraint device that wraps around the torso and head of an injured person thereby giving maximum immobilization of the injured person's head, neck, and back area.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel spinal restraint device that is very compact in size when not being utilized and which easily and quickly unfolds when the necessity to use it occurs.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel spinal restraint device which incorporates structure along its back surface for hoisting the injured person vertically out of inaccessible locations.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel spinal restraint device that is economical to manufacture and relatively maintenance free.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel spinal restraint device that will provide maximum immobilization of the head, neck, and back of the injured person during his transportation to a medical treatment center.